Branding

Hey guys! In true Shana form this week, I'm a little late posting! Sorry.

And as you all know, the blog is about branding and company identity. On Thursday I presented a real life branding problem I am running into at my work. Again, here are both logos one for the parent company 'American Design and Build' and one for the solar division of 'American Sentry Solar'.

Obviously, the issue is to make both work well together as the solar division continues to grow and become more successful without completely changing one or both logos. We need them to work together and be recognizable as the same brand but can't change too much about either.

Since I already gave a brief synopsis of the company, each logo and problem at hand, I thought I'd present some questions for us to discuss.

1. What are your suggestions for making this particular branding issue work better?
2. How important is having a good understanding of brand strategy for people in our line of work?
3. Do you have real life experience with a branding nightmare/success story?
4. How much of branding is good design and good business?